A Marquee for the Modern Era
When I think of the word ‘marquee’, I, like many others around me, immediately get an image in my head of a church fete and the ‘best sponge cake’ competition being held in a dusty, stained, heavy canvas walled tent, laced together with an elaborate interweaving of coarse rope that would look better placed in a dominatrix’s basement, than around the Women’s Institute stall.
Usually, this is topped off by an equally grimy circus-style roof, supported by a heavily painted and worryingly cracked and weathered piece of timber.
However, after recently being asked to look into marquee hiring for a friend’s company summer ball, it would appear that I am both wrong, and also possibly living in the 1930’s.
It seems that majority of today’s marquees are pristine, made with modern, lightweight fabrics and supported by computer designed aluminium structures that expand from something that will fit into the back of an average family hatchback to a vast canopy, capable of covering an entire football stadium.
Ok, maybe I have exaggerated slightly, but you get the idea. They are much more compact than you’d imagine, yet, when fully assembled, create a large indoor space for your party or corporate event; ideal for creating areas where people may require shade, for a large indoor dance floor, a garden banquet or an end of season sporting party.
Did I also say that some of the models available are modular? That’s right; you can connect a number of marquee sections together to create even more space for your family, guests or clients. You can choose to have windows in the walls; wide entrances on all four sides, the permutations are almost limitless. However, if you’re just after a couple of gazebos to place over the food and drinks stations, these are readily available too.
Of course, if you’re looking for something palatial, you’re still going to need to go down the heavier, more traditional route, with the timber poles, the heavy canvas walls and guy lines running out to pegs embedded into the ground. But even here, it seems, the musty, dusty old style has long been abandoned for plastic coated fabrics, eyelets and hooks in place of the frayed ropes and even, with some models, telescopic aluminium or steel uprights that ensure the roof is kept solidly over your head for the duration of your event and, because they are padded, to match the surrounding walls, they both protect you and blend in with their surroundings.
And like with any good service supplier, a team of experts come, erect and secure your marquee and, at the end of your special event, disassemble and remove the coverings in a quick and unobtrusive way, leaving you to enjoy that nice bottle of 10 year old Scotch that you hid, from the guests, down the back of the food station…
Although those memories of sleepy summer church fetes or the scenes from 70s TV shows may still be furnishing our thoughts and opinions about what makes a marquee, the truth of the matter is that they are lighter, more portable and more cost effective than may have realised.
Those dirty church fete marquees have come a long way.
Usually, this is topped off by an equally grimy circus-style roof, supported by a heavily painted and worryingly cracked and weathered piece of timber.
However, after recently being asked to look into marquee hiring for a friend’s company summer ball, it would appear that I am both wrong, and also possibly living in the 1930’s.
It seems that majority of today’s marquees are pristine, made with modern, lightweight fabrics and supported by computer designed aluminium structures that expand from something that will fit into the back of an average family hatchback to a vast canopy, capable of covering an entire football stadium.
Ok, maybe I have exaggerated slightly, but you get the idea. They are much more compact than you’d imagine, yet, when fully assembled, create a large indoor space for your party or corporate event; ideal for creating areas where people may require shade, for a large indoor dance floor, a garden banquet or an end of season sporting party.
Did I also say that some of the models available are modular? That’s right; you can connect a number of marquee sections together to create even more space for your family, guests or clients. You can choose to have windows in the walls; wide entrances on all four sides, the permutations are almost limitless. However, if you’re just after a couple of gazebos to place over the food and drinks stations, these are readily available too.
Of course, if you’re looking for something palatial, you’re still going to need to go down the heavier, more traditional route, with the timber poles, the heavy canvas walls and guy lines running out to pegs embedded into the ground. But even here, it seems, the musty, dusty old style has long been abandoned for plastic coated fabrics, eyelets and hooks in place of the frayed ropes and even, with some models, telescopic aluminium or steel uprights that ensure the roof is kept solidly over your head for the duration of your event and, because they are padded, to match the surrounding walls, they both protect you and blend in with their surroundings.
And like with any good service supplier, a team of experts come, erect and secure your marquee and, at the end of your special event, disassemble and remove the coverings in a quick and unobtrusive way, leaving you to enjoy that nice bottle of 10 year old Scotch that you hid, from the guests, down the back of the food station…
Although those memories of sleepy summer church fetes or the scenes from 70s TV shows may still be furnishing our thoughts and opinions about what makes a marquee, the truth of the matter is that they are lighter, more portable and more cost effective than may have realised.
Those dirty church fete marquees have come a long way.
